Why Am I Posting an Article on Gun Control on a Natural Health Blog?

What a news article about gun control doing on a natural health blog?

Let me explain: Gun control advocates want to ban guns on the premise that guns kill people. Ban guns, and save people, is the basic idea. After all, we already have cops, so the idea that people need guns for self-protection is pretty old school, right?

The problem is, that's the same tired old argument the medical bureaucrats use about natural healing. After all, we already have medical doctors, so the idea that people need herbs and supplements and chiropractors and naturopaths is, well, pretty old school, right?

You see, it comes down to educated choice. I know that if a killer breaks into my house in the middle of the night, it's going to take the cops anywhere from 12 to 20 minutes on average to get to me. I also know the killer can probably take me out in about 2 minutes. So I keep a gun, and I educate myself on its usage through accredited gun courses and practice at the local shooting range, knowing that on the whole, depending on the cops, however well-trained, well-intentioned and heavily armed they may be, is not always going to work to my greatest benefit.

Similarly, I make an educated choice about doctors. Like cops, they are generally wonderful, well-meaning, highly-trained people. And they are often very helpful, particularly if you break your arm, or have a heart attack, or something like that. But for the most part, they are little more than pill-pushers for the pharmaceutical industry. And their treatments are designed strictly to treat symptoms, rather than resolve underlying health problems. What's more, they have one of the most abysmal records in the world, in terms of accidentally harming people with their medical decisions. (See statisics below.)

So, when it comes to doctors, I take the same stand as I do with guns. I recognize that doctors aren't necessarily my first and best choice. And I continually educate myself on natural healing techniques, in order to become more self-reliant, health-wise. The more I can do for myself, the more I free up doctors to deal with more serious problems they are trained for.

For some reason, self-reliance is now a foreign concept to the vast majority of people on the face of the earth. They have become used to big brother government providing for their social needs, the medical bureaucrats providing for their medical needs, law enforcement providing for their protection, etc.

But for those of us who recognize the inherent short-comings in depending upon others for your needs, the value of self-reliance becomes abundantly apparent. With that in mind, here is some food for thought in regards to doctors versus guns:

Doctors vs. Guns

Doctors:

(A) The number of doctors in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are now a whopping 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 17.14%.

[Statistics: courtesy of the U. S. Dept of Health & Human Services]

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.001875%.

[Statistics: courtesy of the FBI.]

So statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners!

Remember, guns don't kill people, doctors do.

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!! Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

I am being faecitious, of course. Yet the statistics are true. The medical industry, held to the same standards as the gun industry, would have been banned decades ago. Same with the pharmaceutical industry: Prescription drugs kill or permanently injure tens of thousands of people a year. Herbs and nutritional supplements, on average, about three people per year, and then generally, only through mis-use or abuse.

Think about it. And if you believe in self-reliance, even just a little bit, be sure to continually educate yourself on natural healing, and practice it. As with guns, education and practice makes perfect. The more self-reliant you become in health matters, the less likely you'll end up on the wrong end of the above statistics.

-- Spencer

Ten Years After Columbine, It's Easier to Bear Arms

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090420/us_time/08599189141600

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER Michael A. Lindenberger – Mon Apr 20, 11:15 am ET

Monday April 20 marks 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold permanently etched the words Columbine High School into this nation's collective memory. What happened that day in 1999 also seemed to wake America up to the reality that it had become a nation of gun owners - and too often a nation of shooters.

The carnage in Littleton, Colorado - 12 classmates and a teacher before the killers offed themselves - and the ease with which the teenagers acquired their weapons (two sawed-off shotguns, a 9-mm semiautomatic carbine and a TEC-9 handgun) seemed to usher in a new era of, well if not gun control, then at least gun awareness. (See pictures of crime in middle America.)
In the decade since, massacres perpetrated by deranged gunmen have continued - including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in which Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and wounded many others. But something odd has occurred. Whatever momentum the Columbine killings gave to gun control has long since petered out. (See pictures of America's gun culture.)

This spring, for example, Texas lawmakers are mulling a new law that would allow college students to carry firearms to campus (Utah already makes this legal). "I think people weren't concerned about it first," says University of Texas graduate student John Woods, who has emerged as a spokesman for campus efforts to defeat the bill. "They thought, 'It's a terrible idea. Why would the government consider something like this?'" But as the debate on campus has heated up, that complacency has vanished, Woods explains to TIME. Students opposed to the bill plan a big rally on Thursday at the Capitol, he says.

But efforts like Woods' are up against powerful headwinds - and not just because of the powerful gun lobby that often strangles gun-control laws. Americans in general have cooled significantly to the idea of restricting gun rights. A poll released last week by CNN showed that support for stricter gun laws was at an all-time low, with just 39% of respondents in favor. Eight years ago that number was 54%.

Woods concedes that getting help to the psychotic, would-be killers of the world would probably be an even better fix. But he has a personal reason to take the issues seriously. Two years ago, he was in his apartment in Blacksburg, Virginia, listening to sirens sounding across the campus outside his window. A half-dozen friends of his were in the classroom where Cho Seung-Hui opened fire, and the names of some of the dead belong to people he knew. "The idealist in me is shocked and angry," Woods says, that restrictions on guns have eased rather than tightened in the wake of tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech. "But the cynic in me is not surprised at all. I think if this was peanuts or pistachios causing all these deaths, then we'd be all over it. But there is no amendment about peanuts or pistachios in the Bill of Rights. People on both sides just simply won't compromise." (See pictures form the Virginia Tech massacre.)

Indeed, the debate seems to be almost one-sided nowadays, with an ongoing backlash against gun control. Another law up for debate in Texas, for example, would prohibit most companies from barring employees from keeping guns in their cars in company parking lots. In Montana, only last-minute dealmaking between the House and Senate stripped a new law of language that would have given residents the right to carry concealed weapons with or without a permit.

A Prescription Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful?

The video news broadcast in the following article is a spoof from The Onion.com. But it makes a great point, which is that the geniuses behind modern medical science have made a "disease" out of every little quirk and characterisictic in human life, and have come up with an expensive pill to cure us of all of our little idiosyncracies.

For example, your kid can't sit still in class at school, while the other kids in the class manage to sit there like brain-dead zombies? He or she must be inflicted with ADHD, right? Hey, don't worry. We have a whole plethora of prescription drugs for that problem. And you'd better let us put your kid on one or more of them, or we'll label him dysfunctional, and investigate your parenting habits.

Or...could it be possible that for some kids it's just not normal, nor productive, to have to sit still on a hard wood chair for eight hours a day, five days a week, while listening to some government-trained bureaucrat we call a "teacher" rattle on about how we all evolved from amoebas millions of years ago, and are, therefore, nothing more than animals in need of a little training (and drugging).

But never mind that, you parents. Put your kids on the drugs. And by the way, if you've feeling a little bit tired and lonely, or maybe a bit frazzled, or blue, we have drugs for you, too. You're probably just suffering form an imbalance of serotonin levels in your brain. You must be in need of one of our nifty new psycho-therapeutic agents called Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors (read: prescription antidepressants). Don't be concerned that all of those mass murderers who shot up malls, post offices and work places all over the country were all on these same types of drugs. Just take one a day and watch all of your cares melt away.

The bottom line is that people have indeed lost touch with what is natural. For example, getting regular daily sunlight is one of the best cures for lack of energy and "the blues" (it increases levels of Vitamin D, which in turn boosts immunity and gives energy). And in children, periodic outdoor exercise throughout the day is the best cure for an inability to sit still in class. But why go through all of the trouble to get a little sunshine and exercise, when we have a drug for the problem?

We have become a society in which synthetic prescription drugs rather than natural means are the answer for every little foible. And we need to reverse the tide, quickly, or we risk becoming the "Soma" society described in the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

-- Spencer

A Prescription Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful?
http://www.drcarolyndean.com/2009/04/17/a-prescription-drug-for-the-annoyingly-cheerful/

Dr. Carolyn Dean MD ND April 17, 2009

Today, I have a news (video) clip about a new drug that helps people who have a "persistently positive outlook on life."

The following ONN news clip reports that the FDA approved the first ever depressant drug. (Note: NOT an anti-depressant.) It’s a proposed treatment for the "approximately 20 million Americans who are insufferably cheery."

The depressant treats a wide range of symptoms including: "Participating in Community Theatre" and "Organizing Neighborhood Potlucks."

Click the play button below to watch the 2-minute video clip and then make sure to read my commentary afterward.




Please note: The video contains profanities (one written, one verbal)…

Are You Too Happy?"Despondex Could be Right for You…" Real or Spoof?

When I first saw this video I wasn’t sure if it was real or a spoof. We’ve already seen so many crazy drugs and treatments approved by the FDA – this is hardly unbelievable. Which is why it’s so funny – it exaggerates just a bit what we’ve come to expect.

It may even be on Big Pharma’s cutting room floor. I can see this striking the money cord with some "marketing genius." They’ve already created diseases out of so many afflictions (e.g. "restless leg syndrome," "shyness," "heartburn from overating")… why not add "excessive happiness" to the list.

The Standardization of Moods

A growing theme with world powers is the "standardization" of how we live. Where a select few get to decide what is "normal" and then require everybody else to conform. We are even seeing that with the new agriculture bill (H.R. 875) that aims to force all farms to use GMO seeds and pesticides (under the guise of food safety).

In this Depondex spoof we are seeing a different kind of standardization. The standardization of moods. As "Eva Hendry" said in the clip: "Now Jeff and I can just waste a night sitting on the couch watching a TV show neither of us enjoy – like a regular couple."

The "Natural" Way to Feeling Crummy

But, as the video points out, a "natural" alternative would simply involve feeding people a diet of corn syrup and white bread while denying them any form of exercise. Based on that statement, one may conclude that doing the opposite would alleviate depression.

Is happiness that simple? Probably not for everyone, but it’s definitely a good start. People who eat real food, exercise every day and watch little TV tend to feel happier than the norm.

Sadly, when you are already feeling bad, junk food and an evening with the TV remote seem more attractive than going for a swim, preparing healthy food or reading a good book.

But everything comes down to habits and what you are used to. You can get trapped in a cycle of unhappiness or in a cycle of happiness.

Unhappiness or happiness can be a choice! I choose happiness and always try to look for the best feeling-thought that I can think.

P.S. By the way, I wrote the Personal Power column, this month, for Dr. Christiane Northrup’s Women’s Wisdom Circle. It’s called the “The Magic Mineral: Magnesium Supports Women at Every Stage of Life."